Richard Black suggests that with climate change not sucking up quite as much air time, there was a chance for some other important environmental issues to move up in prominence.

From Ivor Tossell's Globe and Mail column:

In 2004, the rise of blogs and their newfound political power gripped the public attention. In 2005, Wikipedia and the virtues of crowdsourcing announced themselves to the general public. In 2006, YouTube mushroomed into an online-video juggernaut, and ushered in a new age of user-generated cat videos. In 2007, Facebook went from college diversion to mainstream phenomenon.

And now, it's the end of 2008, and here she comes, the latest Miss Internet Hoopla. Today, everybody is facing the imperative of signing up to Twitter, the service that has just sashayed away with the crown.

From the Globe and Mail (Dec. 24):

Torontonians are totally tethered to Twitter. Canada's largest city is the Twitter capital of the Great White North and home to one of the largest collections of Twitter users in the world, according to a new report from market tracking firm HubSpot Inc. Toronto places eighth on a list of the Top 30 locations on Twitter, based on the supplied biographical information of Twitter users - including what they list as a place of residence - while Canada ranks No. 13. London tops the list, followed by the United States generally, then San Francisco, New York and Chicago.

This stub of an article noted that Twitter's user base expanded by 600 per cent during 2008.

A round-up of what I saw and really liked in 2008, and what I still hope to see at some point because I think I will like it.

There wasn't the same nutty deluge of "celebrity" news in 2008 as in 2007. Salon's Sarah Hepola explores what she deems the end of the tabloid era.

From Salon.com:

Scott Tobias of the Onion's A-V Club started a series in 2008 he calls The New Cult Canon.

It's a good roundup of fims I have either seen or should at least consider seeing, and so I collect his efforts to date.

Would he have gone with the anti-gay, anti-Semitic Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, president of Iran?

Britain's Channel 4 did, and the sparks are flying.

From the BBC:

Vietnam has tightened restrictions on internet blogs, banning bloggers from raising subjects the government deems inappropriate.

Blogs should follow Vietnamese law, and be written in "clean and wholesome" language, according to a government document seen by local media.

Internet service providers will be held accountable for the content of blogs they host.

More than 20 million Vietnamese use the internet - a quarter of the population.

Saw a pointer via Clay Shirky on Twitter to this:

The ministry planned to contact Yahoo and Google to seek their cooperation in "creating the best and healthiest environment for bloggers" the newspaper Thanh Nien Daily reported earlier this month.

Hmmm. Which way will Google and Yahoo go on this one? Call me crazy, but I think they'll put profits ahead of principle.